Gunze Sangyo 1/24 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite

[Justin Porter]

Decided to knock out a nice quick curbside build of Gunze Sangyo's 1/24th scale Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite. There's really not a whole lot to this kit, so I'm just focusing on a clean build. I started by re-scribing the panel lines which were a bit weak on the kit body, then block sanded the body with 1500 Tamiya Sanding Sponge and have shot the whole thing in Alclad Grey Microfiller Primer.

[mrm]

Pretty cool. When I lived in Colorado, I had a neighbor that had a white one with a V8 shoehorned in there. He used to terrorize the town in it. LOL 

These things are really, really tiny in real life. 

[jaymcminn]

Looking forward to this. It's one of those "I'll pick it up someday" kits for me. Does it have the weird rubbery interior bits that Gunze likes so much?

[Justin Porter]

2 hours ago, jaymcminn said:

Looking forward to this. It's one of those "I'll pick it up someday" kits for me. Does it have the weird rubbery interior bits that Gunze likes so much?

Unfortunately yes. Both the seats and the interior side panels are vinyl as opposed to styrene. Fortunately I'm using mostly acrylic paints on the build so I'm not terribly worried about painting those pieces. 

[Justin Porter]

While it certainly runs the risk of being cliché, I couldn't help but want to use the new British Racing Dark Green in the Cobra Motors line on my Sprite. Really really happy with how the color looks and looking forward to the clear coat.

[absmiami]

Are you using their 2 part

clear coat w the toxics - or something else ?

[Justin Porter]

11 minutes ago, absmiami said:

Are you using their 2 part

clear coat w the toxics - or something else ?

Don't want to pull the 2K off the shelf. It's moving too well to customers! lol I will likely clear this with Gunze UV Cut Super Gloss.

[Bullybeef]

I’ve always thought these were neat cars, I met a gent in Alberta that had a Toyota 4 cyl and a five speed trans from an 80’s Celica, it nice out and handled pretty darn awesome. 

[Justin Porter]

A light touch on a simple kit can sometimes be exactly what you need. I added flocking from Ken's Fuzzi Fur to the floor of the Sprite but otherwise am sticking to the contents of the box to avoid letting this build spiraling out of control.

[Justin Porter]

We are about 95% of the way there with the Sprite. The only major deviation I have made was drilling the windshield frame to take two lengths of 0.7mm brass tubing to pin the windshield to the body as I did NOT like the joint as designed.

[Justin Porter]

Sprite is happily all wrapped up. I couldn't help but take a small "family portrait" before the Sprite heads for the photo booth.